


wait for it

by spiderboyneedsahug



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Emotional Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Ouch, Sad Ending, This hurts, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, anyways Happy likes Peter you can't change my mind, no beta we die like men, sad and craving deathpacito? do i have the fic for you!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 04:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15987812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderboyneedsahug/pseuds/spiderboyneedsahug
Summary: death doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes...Happy wasn't with the other Avengers when the world fell apart and people crumbled to ashes. He's just waiting. Waiting for Tony to come home.Hoping.





	wait for it

**Author's Note:**

> have the fic equivalent of an interlude while I work on all my other WIPs
> 
> pulled from my tumblr

He’s been waiting at the compound ever since the news first broke. Aliens in New York, again. Tony going up into space to save the world, again. But it’s Tony, he tells himself. Tony isn’t just going to go up into space and die.

 

So he waits.

 

And waits.

And waits.

Then, something changes. It starts with some comms going down across the Compound; some people not responding to their messages. Then, he sees it for the first time. It’s an intern, not that much older than Peter. She looks sick. Happy leans out to catch her as she falls – or he tries. By the time she should have met his arms, there’s ash floating towards the ground, and no trace of the girl ever having existed in the first place.

Happy’s eyes widen as he stares at his palm. His hands are shaking ever so slightly, disturbing the ashes that lay there. It’s only after he’s tipped them on to the floor that he realises that those ashes were the intern, and he’s just tipped her on the floor. He feels sick.

Happy counts seven more people turning to ash within his view while he flounders, trying to figure out what’s happening. A teary-eyed Helen Cho video calls him about two hours into his renewed wait for Tony to come home. Her chief nurse isn’t at her side like normal. Please, please, let Tony come home.

Pepper is still alive when he checks, and the reports of people turning to dust stop flooding across the compound. So is Rhodey.

So why isn’t Tony home yet?

* * *

 

It takes two days. By this point, doubt is becoming too heavy in Happy’s chest. Tony went up into space, with Peter and some wizard. He isn’t a man of religion, but he prays. Don’t let Parker have to suffer the loss of his Aunt. Don’t let him have to grieve Tony’s death. Don’t let Pepper or Rhodey or him have to grieve Tony.

In a way, it’s both reassuring and horrifying to see Tony hobble out of the crashed spaceship. There’s blood covering his abdomen. Some blue, robot looking lady is with him.

And Tony’s eyes. So empty. Hollowed out by grief, with the hallmark expression of blank horror that seems to be marking everyone’s face over these past few days.

The space behind Tony is empty. Happy looks up to him with a dawning sensation of sickness and panic in his chest, and opens his mouth to speak. Tony beats him to it.

“He’s gone.”

Whatever fragile hope Happy had in his chest dies with that statement. Tony doesn’t even stop walking, he just strides into the compound; into the elevator. He’s going to the labs. That’s where he feels safest, Happy knows this for sure. He spends most of his time down there with the kid-

Oh, god.

Suddenly, he knows why Tony is going down there. The blue lady follows. If he looks hard enough, Happy thinks he might be able to see confusion in her expression. So he enters the elevator with them. He isn’t going to let Tony be alone through this one.

“Are they-?”

“Pepper’s fine, Tony. Rhodey too. Helen lost her chief nurse, but she’s alive.”

Tony nods, somewhat absently. “Good. That’s good.”

It’s too quiet now. Usually, someone would be chattering on idly, banishing the silence that follows these types of disasters. There’s nothing. Not anymore.

The emptiness follows them into the labs. Tony stops before he even makes it five steps into the lab, staring at some papers-

Oh.

Happy walks over to the scattered sheets and picks it up. It’s not Tony’s maths, or Pepper’s neat scrawl reminding someone to eat. Or sleep. Or drink. It’s homework. And next to it, web fluid designs, messily scribbled chemicals. Ideas for suit upgrades. One of the motor oil smoothies that DUM-E undoubtedly gave Peter that the kid would fake drinking, untouched.

It’s all so final. Peter shouldn’t be- He’s a kid. His infectious energy- extinguished. Gone. Wiped off the face of the universe.

Happy whips around, alarmed, at the thud that sounds through the labs. His first thought is of Tony – he should be in medical. That blood…

“Tony, are you okay?!” The man in question is kneeling on the floor, papers in hand. Happy frowns, slightly confused – that is, until he catches sight of what’s on the paper.

 

_Thanks for letting me come over, Mr. Stark! I tought DUM-E a new trick – see what happens when you ask him for a smoothie._

_Peter_

 

Some of the ink is smudged, leaking and bleeding into the surrounding letters. Happy kneels down and looks at Tony.

“I’m so sorry.”

“He was just a kid.” It comes out as nothing louder than a whisper, but it rings out like a gunshot. Happy shakes his head, trying in vain to ignore the way his throat is constricted and his chest feels hollow.

Peter died thinking Happy hated him. The thought is a burden now, heavy and unmoving in his mind. Just a kid.

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I'm working on my other fics. The next published chapter should be the second chapter of Maybe take a sick day?
> 
> it's cute :)


End file.
